Groups: Top 10's and Birthdays!

• All Group Forums now have Top 10 Posters, Topic Starters and Replied Topics
• Groups Forums also now show any Group Members' birthdays for the Month and Day
• I added button links for Map and Request to the top of all Group Pages

Groups: Who's on Xbox Live?

• [hc]Boss Vos[/hc] sent me a great idea of having a live Who's on XBL list for Groups.  This has been setup for all Groups and is accessible in a couple ways.
• First, you can get to it from the Group Members list.  It's down the page above the Armor box.
• Second, you can get to it from the Group Forum, by using the link up near the top called "See Who's on XBL"
• The Group Maps have been taken off of the main Group Home page and put on their own page for Groups.  Just click Map up in the bar on the Group Home Page to see the Member Map
• Also the Group Member Map and Main Member map work in Chrome now.  
• Also, the maps are easier to read now because they work in Terrain mode

Updates to Group & User Custom pages

• Remember that as a supporter you can create custom pages on your profile or any groups you have?  Anyways, I made some updates to that system:
• You can now set an order number for each page
• You can now set a background color for each page, and there's a nice color picker to make this easier
• Page links over on the left now have a little bullet next to them to make them easier to view
• Added a Recently Viewed Member Pages box to the front page
• A couple small HaloSphere updates as well
• Fixed the bug that would let you quote blocked posts
• Added a group request count to the My Groups dropdown

[url=http://halocharts.com/groupforum.php?view=topic&topic_id=25750&id=1352][img]http://halocharts.com/images/custom/Smyf/HC%20News/14th%20Mar%202010/News%20Short%20V1.png[/img][/url]

Suprisers Mile Winners posted!

• 1st place: [hc]HC Father[/hc]
• 2nd place: [hc]A Frosty Ninja[/hc]
• 3rd place: [hc]HC Hern[/hc]
• Here is HC Father's run:
  [youtube]ZeMGW27wWjc[/youtube]

Reach Matchmaking Analysis Video

From TTL:

[quote]Tied the Leader’s most prolific machinimaker, [hc]TTL Hoovaloov[/hc], knows this. His attention to the details of a game are as razor sharp as his skill with a video editor. For a full tactical briefing on the bomb that was dropped on our comfort zone, click below. Don’t watch it here, fare gamer. Get thee to YouTube. Hoov went to all the trouble to provide this analysis in high resolution, after all.[/quote]

[youtube]xJKvdYB1t1w[/youtube]

[hc]Xx TheCzar xX[/hc] a.k.a. HC Monstr has brought together some pretty cool clips to make a Halocharts community montage. He has future plans to make another, so if you want to be featured, he's your guy. Take a look! It clocks in at a little over Nine minutes, but it's worth the watch...and not only because Im featured. Enjoy!

[youtube]qm2VAXbHFSo[/youtube]

HC Redemption is back! (short vacation right?)

• Yes, HC Redemption announced his departure from the status of Admin about a week ago.  This was all finalized a few days ago, and then I realized how much of an asset the site was losing and asked for him to reconsider.
• Along with this, I have asked if he would return and take over a new role on HC as the Site Manager, basically in-charge of the day-to-day here on the site, including the rest of the Staff.  He has accepted and has a new rank & color (black), but will also continue to be the admin of the HC Challenges.
• I'm not going anywhere, but I prefer to stay focused on the technical side of the site, you know, the code and database and stuff.  It's what I feel I do best.  I'm still very much in charge, but Redemption will be a huge help to me in keeping up with all the happenings that occur here on a daily basis.
• Oh, and I set my color to Orange too.
• We have much more to tell you all about very soon!

[url=http://halocharts.com/groupforum.php?view=topic&topic_id=25308&id=1352][img]http://halocharts.com/images/custom/Smyf/HC%20News/7th%20Mar%202010/SHORT.png[/img][/url]

Group Rank Images! (By Request for the most active groups on HC)

• Fixed a bug with the FFA Brawler Class.  It was looking for Commander, but it is now looking for Colonel in Rumble Pit or higher.
• Certain "trusted" groups here on HC can have the option of using Images with any custom ranks created.  Not all Member created groups will have this ability, but the more prominent and active groups can request to have it turned on.  It's currently being tested by the HaloCharts 40 & Above group.
• Upcoming Events Box now appears at the top of Group forums and the main forums (if there are any upcoming events).  This should make the Calendar function in your group more useful.

AJAX-ifying the site

• I'm working to AJAX-ify the site here and there where it's appropriate.  This will lead to faster loads for certain things.  
• So far, if you click the Delete message button, it's more instant than it was before.  Also, it should work everytime, whereas before it was flaky.
• The GREAT POST links have been switched to an AJAX call to stop messing with your back button.  This was a problem in Chrome.
• Now when you accept or deny group requests, it's instant, no page reload.  
• Also, for supporters, added a new chart called Opponent Recommendations, which is just the opposite of Teammate Recommendations.  It's the players you do the best and worst against.

The contest has been relaunched as of 2/27. Please make sure you are using the proper map & gametype!

We will miss you BerserkerBarage

• I wanted to let the community here on HaloCharts know about the loss of a fellow member: [hc]BerserkerBarage[/hc]
• Apparently, BerserkerBarage passed on from complications from an infection. More info can be found here on a Bungie forum post by Achilles1108
• [hc]BerserkerBarage[/hc] has been active on HC for nearly year and was a HC Elite and a Bungie Average Joe. He was known for not being afraid to share his thoughts on anything and was a fantastic forum poster. He will be greatly missed.

Supporter Status Donation amounts lowered

• I've decided to lower the minimum donation amounts to become a Supporter. Yearly is now $5 and Lifetime is $10. Sponsoring another player is still $10, which gives them Lifetime and you Sponsor Status.
• If you donated within the last week, I want to make things right, so I'm giving you a few options:
  • If you donated $10 to become a Yearly Supporter, I can refund you $5 or I can switch your account to Lifetime.
  • If you donated $20 to become a Lifetime Supporter, I can refund you $10 or make another member a Lifetime Supporter and give you Sponsor status.
  • Please use the Contact Form to let me know and include the Paypal ID you used. I'm only offering this to members that became Supporters within the last week (so Feb 4th is the cutoff)

New Stats for Supporters

• It's been a while since I have added anything new for Halo 3 stats. I had some neat ideas sent in and have setup some 2 new stat sections for Supporters
• On your player page, under the Player Related links, look for "High Skill With & Against" and "With & Against Averages"
• The "High Skill With & Against" link will give you 2 lists of players you have played with and against counted by their high skill. This is based of players you have played with and against that are tracked by HaloCharts
• The "With & Against Averages" link will give you 2 tables of average stats of players you have played with and against. This is based of players you have played with and against that are tracked by HaloCharts

Want to play other games?

• The Want to Play section has been updated to include more games. I'll be adding in the current 'hot' multiplayer games on XBL.
• Stat collector should work again!

Community Spotlight with [hc]Surpriser[/hc]

HCFFC3: Choke Point

• 18 new headers by [hc]Grifball Legend[/hc]
• Updated the score and ranks for Halo Wars
• Quite a few HaloSphere updates in the last week.

January Stat Signature Winners

• [hc]HC Surpriser[/hc] has started taking in monthly screenshot entries and choosing out of the entries a few to become stat signature backgrounds. The 5 winners for January have been added!
• EvaFIRE, MarkVBROWN, ReconDUST, ReconHAZE and ReconSHOCK
• 

Community Spotlight with [hc]Smyf[/hc]

Community Spotlight with [hc]HC Childish0gre[/hc]

Halocharts' Firefight Challenge

New Rules - Solo Play Now Available!!

Community Spotlight with [hc]HC Hern[/hc]

• Added new BBcode to support Bungie Video. Here is a topic with an example
• Plenty of HaloSphere Updates
• Going to try to get some new themes out this month. Smyf built one that is just waiting on me, and 2 others have themes in the works.
• The Game Finder By Date Range charts now let you click on a playlist in the games and filter the stats down to just that playlist. This is useful if you want to see how you did in a specific playlist over a date range.
• Unfortunately, I need to disable the country filter on the leaderboards for most countries. It's due to a really bad performance problem that is dragging the whole site down. Hope to have a fix ASAP.

Firefighting with Alex Skuby

Happy New Year!

• Hope everyone has a Happy New Year!
• There's a lot to look forward to this year in Halo. Reach Beta is probably only a few months away!
• There's not a whole lot new around the site except for some HaloSphere changes.

Merry Christmas!!!

• Sorry for the downtime today. HC has been under a huge DDoS attack all day. I guess the timing worked out though since today is a day off for most people.
• Hope you all have a great Christmas tomorrow and can spend time with family and friends. Thanks for all of your support this past year and here's to another year!

Operation: Winter Storm Winners!

• HaloCharts Player Page awards are in the works for the top 3 in each bracket and all participants!
• As soon as addresses for winners come in I'll be sending out the prizes. It may be after the Christmas holiday before they actually ship. Xbox Live codes will be given out via an email.
• Thanks to everyone who participated and thanks to FacilityB5D for putting the tournament on! They put in a tremendous amount of time and work on this and I'm pleased with how it turned out. Remember, this was all for a great cause and it looks like well over $200 will be going to the Child's Play Charity!
• Also, thanks to [hc]Boss Vos[/hc] and [hc]Essentre[/hc] for their help on HC's side with this effort!

• [hc]HC Chiller[/hc] is starting back the HC Favs! I'll update this post once I have a link to show you, but get ready to start submitting to the favorites again!
• [hc]VIRUS V71[/hc] has started a group for all HC Elites! If you want to be a part of it, check it out here.
• Fixed some game loader bugs for certain game types not loading. Thanks to [hc]HC Fortitude[/hc] for the heads up!
• Quite a few HaloSphere updates
• Fixed a classification bug related to the Brawler. Thanks to [hc]Xemnarth[/hc] for the heads up!

HaloSphere Updates

• HaloSphere Random Encounters will now appear randomly as you're browsing the site (if you're a HaloSphere player). You can turn them off under My Account
• Added a High Skill Breakdown section for HaloSphere
• Added win/loss streak info to HaloSphere Quick Stats
• Added skulls as rare items you can get after winning battles. Each skull has a different purpose when used or kept. There is some mystery to them still also. :)
• Added a HaloSphere tab to main player pages so you can quickly jump to somebody's HaloSphere profile.

• Ranked Grifball EXP leaderboard is up
• Ranked Grifball stats are now included on player pages
• New items have been added into HaloSphere. They are all rare items you can get randomly after winning games.

New Prophets!

• [hc]WarpedAlchemist[/hc], [hc]HC Kr0nicus[/hc] and [hc]ZaccyBengence[/hc] have joined the site staff as prophets!
• A Remove From Group link has been added to the group ranks page. You can easily remove people that haven't been active now. Idea by Boss Vos!
• If you click Read or Unread next to a message, you'll automatically go to the reply form for that message. Just a time-saver.
• Added a little "Member is Online" notice over on the right side of player pages, if the member is on Halocharts.

Louis Wu wins The Firestream Firefight!

• We were able to play 4 great games of Firefight LIVE on TRR. Each player is sporting a cool Participant medal and [hc]Louis Wu[/hc] is now the sole owner of the Firestream Firefight WINNER medal! That's pretty much as cool as Reconz. Really.
• Here are the 4 games played:
  • 18,819 with [hc]bs angel[/hc]
  • 17,160 with [hc]Insane54[/hc]
  • 20,337 with [hc]Louis Wu[/hc]
  • 18,370 with [hc]Jironmo[/hc]
• Big thanks to everyone who watched TRR last night! It was a lot of fun, and a great chance to get to know some other community leaders out there. Also, thanks go out to Kete and InsaneFREAKBOY for their work on The Running Riot and for having us all back again for the event!

In other news...

• A Halo news feed box has been added to the front page. The feed pulls from HBO's daily news posts.
• A bug was fixed in country HCS ranks. Your rank probably went down though :(
• The Game Finder by date has been improved to accept date ranges. Also, all columns are sortable now. Useful to find your best game in the last month, etc.
• Raised the requirements of the Ground Support classification
• SFX360 is holding a little contest and giving out some HC Supporter status! Check it out here...

It's payback time!

• bs angel from Hawty McBloggy
• Insane54 from Forge Hub
• Louis Wu from HBO
• Jironimo from Ascendant Justice

Player Classifications!

• There's a new system in place for Supporters called the Player Classification system.
• Basically, as a player, you can be classified based on your skills in certain parts of the game. These classifications can be very useful to other players looking to setup the perfect team, etc.
• Supporters will now see classifications that you meet on your player page. You can click any of these to see a list of players in that class.
• There are only 6 classifications, each with 3 grades right now. More are in the works and will be added as they are finalized. A complete list of possible classes will be posted soon.
• This has been in the works for a long time, and I couldn't have rolled it out without the help of the HC Classifications group and the active members in there!

Skill Graphs!

• I borrowed the Skill Graph from HaloSphere and set it up for Supporters so that you can see all of your ranked playlist skill graphs. The results are pretty interesting.
• If you're a supporter, check out your player page and click Skill Graphs down in the list of charts.
• I'm planning on making an 'all-in-one' graph that will be displayed on all supporter player pages in the future

And the Winner is...

[align=center][img]http://halocharts.com/images/custom/11_09_2009_1_03_53_Stickfest_fp.png[/img]

Congratulations to [hc]POWERJET[/hc] for putting up an amazing number of sticks during the month of October...
You've done an awesome job bro - you may now return to Social!
[img]http://halocharts.com/images/custom/11_09_2009_1_10_51_jet_fb.png[/img]

Read and Discuss Here: [url=http://halocharts.com/groupforum.php?view=topic&topic_id=20120&id=1352][i]CLICK![/i][/url][/align]

Thanks for playing!! Redemption

• Results for Sticktoberfest are almost ready to be shown. There's some big numbers!
• Major armor changes in HaloSphere. Armor is now split into 3 pieces, each bought and equipped seperately.
• There is a HaloSphere Score (HSS) and game ranking now
• The top titles on the site will now be random sayings brought in from the community and staff. Should be some real gems up there from time to time. :)

• I *think* all of the Ranked Living Dead issues have been worked out. If you're a supporter, collect player data again and let me know if you have any issues still.
• Added 3 new achievements to HaloSphere. If you're playing it though, please note that a stat reset is going to happen tomorrow, so don't waste your time on anything until then. The stat reset is necessary due to the number of glitches that were fixed, but lead to players having abnormally high stats.

Sticktoberfest Prize List!

• Here are the prizes for HaloChart's 1st Annual Sticktoberfest!
  • [img]http://www.turtlebeach.com/Portals/0/images/Products/EF_X31/main_logo_01.jpg[/img]
    1st place: A set of [url=http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/efx3/home.aspx]Turtle Beach X31 wireless headphones[/url]
  • 2nd place: 1600 Microsoft Points
  • Top 5 get Lifetime Supporter status if they don't already have it
  • Top 10 player page award for players in the Top 10
  • All players participating get a participant player page award
• Entrance to Sticktoberfest is now closed. 750 players are in!
• Winners will be announced a couple weeks into November

My Sigs for ODST!

• If you're a supporter, you can now access the My Sigs for ODST!
• HC Surpriser made the initial set of sig backgrounds, which look pretty sweet. Its a great start.
• Here are a couple examples:
  [img]http://halocharts.com/images/sigs/odst_HC%20Firestream_3.jpg?rb=482[/img]
  [img]http://halocharts.com/images/sigs/odst_HC%20Firestream_2.jpg?rb=573[/img]

I'm back!

• I was out on a trip for a week, so not a lot has happened.
• A few bugs have been fixed related to Ranked Living Dead and the non-supporter Player Sigs. You have to update those sigs manually now, but they will show your correct armor.
• The ODST sig builder is almost ready to go. Should have it up in the next day or two for Supporters.
• I'm going to announce the Sticktoberfest prizes this week also! Over 700 people are going to be a part of it!

• HaloSphere is an interactive game that is being written and integrated into HaloCharts. It's a completely free & highly addictive game that you need to try out. It's still in BETA stages though, but we need more test players!
• As the game is developed and improved, I want your feedback. So if you are interested in helping, please request to join the HaloSphere testers group and participate in the forum as you play. The game will remain in BETA for a while longer as the different aspects of gameplay are introduced.
• Bug Fixed: I believe player page pictures will completely update now.
• Bug Fixed: If you had trouble getting the correct armor to show up in Sigs, please try again now as this has been fixed.

Halocharts.com Announces the First Annual Sticktoberfest!

[img]http://halocharts.com/images/custom/10_02_2009_10_51_36_SFest_fp.png[/img]

[url=http://halocharts.com/grouppages.php?group_id=3829&page=Sticktoberfest]Click for the Deets![/url]

Member Page Comments

• So there's a new feature you'll see on all custom Member Pages. Other members can now leave comments on pages you create.
• You can turn this on/off per page and you have the option to delete any comments made on your pages.
• You'll get a notification message whenever someone leaves a comment on one of your pages too.

Looking for players for ODST?

• [hc]bs angel[/hc] over at [url=http://hawtymcbloggy.com/2009/09/29/need-firefight-halo-3-odst-teammates/]HawtyMcbloggy[/url] posted a Firefight Teammate list allowing players to sign up with their gamertags and timezone. This list will allow you to easily find other players in the same timezone as you. Check it out and get on the list!
• 

Win Halo 3:ODST and Johnson code!

• I've posted a quick contest for ODST. If you don't already have the game, check it out! Thanks to [hc]GuN Blinkz[/hc] for supplying the prize.
• 19 new headers added! Thanks [hc]HC Surpriser[/hc]!

TONS of ODST Leaderboards!

• The addition of weapon, medal, enemy and vehicle leaderboards brings the available total of ODST leaderboards into the HUNDREDS!
• There are a number of stats you can choose from for all weapons, medals, enemies and vehicles across Firefight and Campaign!

• The ODST High Score leaderboards have some new details and filters. You can now filter by players, difficulty and map. You can also click the players count to jump to the game itself on Bungie.
• The Halo 3 EXP leaderboards broke, but are now fixed.
• It will take a few days for everybody's stats to update with the newest high score details.
• Supporters now have a Collect Player Data link on the My Stats dropdown menu.
• All of the weapon/medal/enemy/vehicle boxes on ODST player pages now start out collapsed.
• Team Throwback has been added to the skill collectors

Happy Birthday Halo 3!

• There's some new stuff on ODST player pages: Stat breakdowns for Weapons, Medals, Enemies and Vehicles over Firefight & Campaign.
• There are a couple stats on these that aren't on Bungie, IE Points per game, kills per game, deaths per game and points per earned (for medals)
• Each of these stat tables are sortable just by clicking any of the column headers.

• The ODST high score leaderboards are filterable by difficulty now.
• I'm just about done with the main ODST stat collector. You'll be able to see much more on your ODST player page very very soon.

• Started fetching difficulty for High scores. After they have caught up I'll add a filter to the High Scores leaderboard.
• HC Redemption and I have fixed a few more graphics floating around with the green in them. Slowly but surely!
• Fixed the problem with Team Mythic EXP effectiveness

ODST Player Pages are available now

• You can now go to your ODST player page. Keep in mind that there's still a lot left to add to them, but I wanted to get them out so that people had something to look at.
• For the most part, the stats shown on them are the same as on Bungie, with a few new ones. Expect to see a lot more get added to them in the coming days.
• In other news, DDoS attacks have taken down HC twice today!
• Fixed a few more places where the old theme was showing through
• Leaderboards for [url=odstleaderboards.php]Campaign & Firefight Total Points[/url] are up!